Craziest ways to cook chicken and turkey

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If it's not just the tryptophan making you tired of poultry, try some of these ridiculous ways to liven up your chicken and turkey dishes. Actually, we don't recommend all of them. Some of them are just a little bit terrifying.

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Turbaconducken

We have a lovely, elegant Gourmet Traveller turducken recipe in our catalogue, but it's not strange enough for this gallery. Consider the turbaconcucken instead, with a duck wrapped in bacon, inside a chicken wrapped in bacon, inside a turkey wrapped in bacon.

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TurDunkin'

Fancy making one of these at home? Unwholesome Foods can tell you all about how to make their unique take on the turducken. But before you try you should know this bird inside a bird inside a bird is brined in Dunkin' Donuts' sugary Coolatta drinks and covered in sprinkles. The sugar coating will have you bouncing off the walls long before the tryptophan in the turkey has a chance to make you feel sleepy.

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Thanksgiving Voltron

Move over, turducken. The gentlemen at US TV show Epic Meal Time have taken meat inside meat attached to more meat to a new level. The Thanksgiving Voltron assembles turkey, duck, rabbit, prawns, crab, a whole pig and bacon-stuffed chicken together to form one mighty meal. "Get ready to assemble!"

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Jellied chicken loaf

If you reckon the shape of poultry is just a little too irregular, try cutting it all up and reconstructing it in a bowl or tin with gelatin. It worked for The Iowa Housewife. Doesn't that make carving easier?

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Red velvet battered chicken

Who would've thought chicken battered with cake would even work? The Food in My Beard blogger Dan Whalen, that's who. He's shared his recipe with Tablespoon and it looks delicious.

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Turkey cake

Hang on a minute. The ingredients for Chow's Thanksgiving "cake" include sweet potatoes, ketchup, onion, sausage stuffing and a nearly a kilogram of ground turkey breast. The marshmallows are there to mislead you into thinking this could be a dessert.

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Turkey in a tuxedo

Fancy a more formal way to dress up a turkey? Try Jim Fobel's turkey in a tuxedo from 1983's Beautiful Food. Future of the Cookbook has shared a template to make the tasty pastry outfit. You could probably do this with any kind of poultry.

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Bikini turkey

These images of the bikini turkey have been doing the rounds for years but, as with many great traditions, the origin of the idea is a little difficult to pin down. We don't know if the Portland Mercury (right) ever tracked down the originator either but if you'd like to do this at home you just need to dress your turkey in a foil two-piece swimsuit to create the desired effect.

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Cthicken or Cthulhu turkey

Texan Rusty Eulberg made the Cthicken (aka Cthulhu) turkey a few years ago as something "unique" for dinner with friends, and later for a Christmas dinner. "The universal reaction was, 'Oh my God, I couldn't eat that'," Eulberg told Gothamist. "But each individual piece was cooked separately. All I did was set them together on the plate. It was delicious." Twitter user Mana called it Cthulhu, following US horror writer HP Lovecraft's octopus-headed creature.

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Whole chicken in a can

While no longer listed in US manufacturer Sweet Sue's range of canned products, once upon a time you could buy a 1.4kg cooked chicken in a can. If you can't already imagine what it would be like, head to I Hate My Message Board to experience the uncanning and Serious Eats for the results of their taste test.